3 comments:

As an FYI, Steve's blog entry is his reaction to hearing about Biederman and his colleagues being sanctioned over consulting fees.

Your colleague, Dr. David Allen, said it best in my opinion - "Biederman & colleagues finally got a slap on the wrist. They should be in jail."

http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-M-Allen-MD/80658565761

I know SG has made reference to this but it bears repeating. The Boring Old Man blog run by a retired psychiatrist has done an outstanding series on Biederman.

http://1boringoldman.com/

In my opinion, when you read the blog entries, you will understand why Dr. Allen said they should be put in jail.

Finally, I want to be clear and state that this isn't about being anti psychiatry vs. pro-psychiatry. This is about cleaning up the profession so psychiatrists can get back to doing what I am sure all doctors care about which is to help people. They want to do this without worrying whether the medicine studies they are looking at are full of corruption.

I liked the post on SteveB's blog. I'm not surprised in the slightest that some Harvard research docs were on the take from Pharma. That they got caught is much more surprising. I have just interrupted my "blogging" and gone to 1boringoldman.com and he happened to update his site while I was there. He posted a list of 11 the psychiatrists under investigation Charles Grassley. Of the 11, 6 were child psychiatrist---5 were investigating "child bipolar disorder" whatever that is. Now I am really mad. I had this depressing idea that it was our culture that couldn't handle our children and hence the creation of the idiocy of the diagnosis of the dx of "child bipolar" due to abuse and neglect and poverty. But far be it from me to not be cynical enough: it is drug companies once again buying their way into the DSM. I am a Gen-Xer so knowing this is being moderated suddenly makes me want to cuss!